This week we hope to bring you beets OR carrots, new purple potatoes, broccoli raab OR turnips, zucchini, cucumbers, grilling onions, basil OR kale OR chard. Large share members will also get tomatoes, garlic, and double potatoes. Fruit share members will get peaches.

I’ve received a few great newsletter submissions recently, both from CSA members and people who work on the farm. So, I’m sharing ideas from other folks this week in lieu of own weekly post. I really love hearing how everyone adds their own unique flavors to things as basic as beets and carrots. The following two recipes are particularly good for kids…that is, if they don’t gobble up all the carrots on the ride home from pick-up. The last one, from a CSA member named Amy, is a delicious variation on massaged kale salad. Enjoy!

-MaddieCarrot Puree

Submitted by Connor (Red Wagon employee)

Hey Red Wagon CSA members,

My name is Connor and I have been tending to the irrigation needs at Teller Farm until a recent bout with heat exhaustion put me on the sidelines. But alas, now I can find some time to share with you ways in which I’ve enjoyed our delicious produce.

I enjoy cooking with things that remind me of home. Having grown up in New England, two of my favorites are sharp Vermont white cheddar and maple syrup. One of my favorite ways to prepare carrots, which I picked up from eating at fancy restaurants with my grandparents as a child, is a warm puree.

Ingredients:

Carrots, boiled until tender (enough to feed your party)

Pure maple syrup, to taste

Cinnamon, to taste

Optional

Nutmeg, to taste

Cayenne pepper, to taste

Simply boil the carrots until they are soft enough to easily stick a fork into, throw them in a food processor and add cinnamon and maple syrup to taste. Nutmeg as well as cayenne pepper also go really well in here. Tread lightly when adding the syrup and the spices so you don’t mask the flavor of the carrots too much. I find our carrots from the farm to be particularly sweet anyway. I prepared this back in June as a side paired with our ripe sugar snap peas for a new take on peas and carrots, but I find this carrot puree to be a very versatile side that goes well with any sort of white fish or chicken. I’ve also used it in burritos with rice and beans in the same fashion that one might use a sweet potato.

Connor

Beet and Carrot Coleslaw

Submitted by Susie (CSA member)

“This beet and carrot coleslaw has been popular with my six year old and pretty simple.”

beets (boiled and chilled), diced

carrots, diced

cabbage, diced

apple cider vinegar

olive oil

honey, optional

Blend diced vegetables with apple cider vinegar and a small amount of olive oil. We like it on the drier side so for half a head of cabbage I did 4 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of olive oil. I also added a bit of honey to counter the vinegar for the kids.

Also I have found that blending cooked beets with applesauce is a great way to introduce the beets to 1 and 2 year old types.

SusieMassaged Kale Salad

Submitted by Amy (CSA member)

This is a suggestion I received from Amy a few weeks ago. She said she doesn’t really measure anything. Just use any and all of the ingredients to taste and according to your personal preferences.

Kale

Salt

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Maple syrup

Red wine vinegar

Craisins

Toasted almonds/sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds

More protein/fiber additions:

Avocado

Smoked salmon

Massage kale with salt, olive oil and lemon juice. Add maple syrup and red wine vinegar to taste. Toss with craisins and nuts of your choice and top with avocado and/or smoked salmon.

Yum! Thanks Amy.Construction on Cherryvale Road

If you pick up your share on a day other than Thursday, the following may or may not affect you. Please read on just in case. I also sent this out in an email last week so please forgive the repetition.

We have received a notice from the City that Cherryvale Road will be closed between Arapahoe and Bonai Shalom (our Thursday pick-up location) starting THIS Thursday, July 26th through Sunday, August 12th. This means that everyone picking up their share on Thursday evenings will have to come to Bonai Shalom from Baseline.

NOTE: If you miss your pick-up on any Tuesday OR Thursday between July 26th and August 12th, you will also have to use the alternate route from Baseline to get to Ru and Bob’s house to collect your share.

A helpful tidbit from Erin, Office Administrator at Bonai Shalom:

Old Tale Road will be closed to all motorists. That is the usual Boulderite sneaky way of getting around jams at Cherryvale, but the City/County/State is on to that scheme and they’ll just close it entirely at Arapahoe. Even residents will have to come from the south and snake to their homes on Old Tale the long way. Everyone HAS to come from Baseline. If you normally take Arapahoe, you’ll just have to drive down 75th or 55th to get to Baseline and then get to Cherryvale that way.

Again, I apologize for repeating myself but we want to do everything we can to avoid confusion and make sure that everyone still gets their veggies!

Thanks and have a great week!

-MaddiePotato Harvest and Storage

Posted by Mo

Potatoes are one of my favorite vegetables to harvest. Really anything that grows underground I love to harvest. It’s like a treasure hunt, unearthing food.

We grow some of our potatoes under plastic mulch. Here are a couple of potato plants at the farm.

Not too exciting huh? When I pull back the plastic you can see the potatoes growing.

I didn’t brush back any dirt before taking that picture, that is how they grow. For some longer season potatoes we ‘hill up’ soil around the potato plants and the plants make lots of potatoes. But ‘early season’ or ‘new’ potatoes don’t get hilled up.

To harvest, I just grab a plant and pull gently and evenly and the whole plant comes out. Thusly.

This is what I harvested from that one plant.

To store your potatoes, you want to put them in a plastic bag and store them in the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator. These will keep for a week or two but don’t store as long as late season potatoes. (Late season potatoes need to be stored in a cool place like a garage, but not too cold or the starches turn to sugar.)

I didn’t include a specific recipe for the potatoes this week. I just wanted to say that I really like to show off the color of these potatoes. I like to keep them as whole as possible and dress them very little to show off their gemlike color.

I made a potato salad with olive oil.

I hope you have fun with your purple potatoes this week.Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Posted by Mo
adapted from Joy of Baking